Introduction
The State of the Texas Early Childhood Education Workforce Report compiles aggregate, statewide data from the Texas Workforce Registry within the Texas Early Childhood Professional Development System (TECPDS) to tell an extensive story about the Texas early childhood workforce. As the platform expands to serve more workforce members, the datasets within TECPDS have grown and enabled our ability to define and describe these data stories.
This current data snapshot focuses on the education and experience of the most common roles in the TECPDS: administrators, practitioners/educators, and trainers. The Texas Workforce Registry is a web-based application for early childhood professionals to keep track of their education and employment history, as well as professional development they have accrued during their career.
Published by the Children’s Learning Institute, the data in this report was exported from TECPDS on January 31, 2024. We examined data for a statewide population of 102,265 early childhood professionals in TECPDS. This snapshot also looks at the data for a subpopulation of Texas Rising Star early learning programs, consisting of 10,882 practitioners (classroom staff who deliver and support instruction) and 2,154 administrators (program and school leaders) participating in the state quality rating and improvement system for child care.1
Recommended Use of Workforce Report Data
We encourage stakeholders from all sectors to leverage the report for data-driven decision-making and gaining insight into the status of the workforce’s education and experience. While our statewide data is not yet complete through TECPDS, we recommend using this data to learn about the workforce, and measure growth and possible impacts of early childhood initiatives. Using the filtering tools, focus on different educator role types, experience, educational attainment data to observe differences including regional variations. While the data displayed appears separate from one another, it is important to keep in mind they are interrelated. For example, one cannot discuss educational attainment data without referencing experience, credentials, and so on.
Educational Attainment Data
In TECPDS, early childhood professionals can document their educational attainment throughout their careers; since the highest level of educational attainment is often tied to career advancement opportunities, a key field within a user’s profile is the highest level of education. The chart below presents statewide and regional data regarding the highest level of education attained by professionals in TECPDS who work with children from birth through age 8.
While education data in TECPDS is growing, its story is consistent with the national picture of the workforce: over half of the early educators in Texas have earned less than an associate’s degree, and two thirds have earned less than a bachelor’s degree; these findings are consistent with prior years‘ analyses. This data aligns with current Child Care Regulation requirements for a High School diploma or General Education Development Test (GED) to work in child care settings, and a recent 2022 Texas Director Survey reveals similar data about educational attainment. In 2023, 72% of administrators had at least some college, while only 55% of practitioners report at least some college. As trainers are often viewed as experts in their areas of expertise, unsurprisingly, 85% of trainers on TECPDS report at least a bachelor’s degree.
Looking specifically at credentials, about 2% of practitioners, 8% of administrators, and 8% of trainers report having a Child Development Associate® (CDA) Credential, the most reported credential in TECPDS; the CDA provides an opportunity to pursue competency and career growth outside of a typical 2-4-year college degree. Available nationwide, the CDA can be a significant pathway to higher education, with many educators later articulating their CDA to pursue their associate’s degree or more. Please note, the CDA must be renewed every three years, and users may not have updated their CDA status in TECPDS; for comparison in 2025, only 23% of reported CDA are still active.
Recent national data indicates that higher educational attainment levels do not substantially increase wages, ultimately providing little financial incentive for practitioners to pursue a higher education degree; educators may find other value in higher education attainment, such as increased instructional quality. Take some time to explore the education attainment filtering tool and see what you find! Use the filtering options to view data by role, education attainment, or Texas region.
Texas Rising Star Educational Attainment Data
At this time, Texas Workforce Registry participation is not required for the early childhood field in Texas, and subsequently we have a high percentage of accounts that are missing data. In 2020, using the Texas Workforce Registry became mandatory for administrators of early learning programs participating in Texas Rising Star. Administrators were required to complete their personal profiles (education, experience, and professional development) for assessment purposes, and practitioners’ use was strongly encouraged. As a result, we now have a subset of career data that is more complete, and reports can support stakeholders to have a clearer picture as a comparison.
Although all staff employed by Texas Rising Star-participating programs are not mandated to upload their career records to TECPDS, we have seen considerable growth in this population due to administrator understanding of the benefits of having all center staff records in one location. In reviewing this more complete collection of career data, three quarters of Texas Rising Star practitioners have earned less than an Associate’s degree (75%); this finding is consistent with prior data. Looking to early learning program administrations, they are more likely to have a higher educational level of at least an Associate’s degree (52%) than practitioners; this data is consistent with 2022 data. Below is a display of Texas Rising Star educational attainment data.
Work Experience Data
TECPDS also houses data on the work experience of early childhood professionals. The chart below presents data regarding the years of experience educators have documented in their personal profiles. As of December 2023, 7,187 early learning programs connected to the Texas Workforce Registry with connected administrators and educators. Work experience can be used as a data point among others to measure workforce quality, expertise, and retainment, and looking across early childhood sectors.
On average, administrators (such as center directors) report more years in the field than practitioners; this data is consistent with prior years’ analyses of data from TECPDS. The majority of administrators reference 10-30 years of experience (33% indicating 10-20 years; 26% indicating 20-30 years), with the distribution of years of experience shifted heavily towards more years of experience than fewer. In contrast, this data reveals that the highest percentage of practitioners report work experience at 1-3 years (21%), with a more consistent distribution of years of experience. These findings are not surprising, as most early childhood professionals begin their careers in the classroom, then may advance into other roles. Take some time to explore work experience in your area using the filtering tool!
Texas Rising Star Work Experience Data
Work experience among practitioners and administrators working in Texas Rising Star early learning programs is similar to all users in TECPDS. The data shows that this subset of practitioners report a wide range of experience, with the distribution similar to the population represented in TECPDS. Approximately 55% of practitioners working in Texas Rising Star programs have five or fewer years of work experience. This contrasts with administrators, who report much higher levels of experience distributed in the 10- 20 years (35%) and 20-30 years’ experience (27%) categories.
Conclusions and Opportunities
The Children’s Learning Institute continues to champion TECPDS as a tool to support individual career advancement and overall workforce development, as well as the primary resource to learn about the characteristics of the early childhood workforce statewide. In 2023, TECPDS added integrations and technology enhancements to improve the user experience and quality of the data available from the platform.
The goal of the report is to share timely data to inform policy decisions and drive further research. The Texas Workforce Registry was originally built to be a digital repository of early childhood career profiles; TECPDS continues to provide programs, services, and resources to the workforce, including core competencies, links to quality trainings and trainers, and certificate generaon at no cost. Over me, it has continued to grow and support Texas with understanding workforce needs and driving investments in strategies to support its members. Leveraging TECPDS data can be one of the first steps toward supporting conversations regarding workforce improvement, and enhance reflection and decision making about the various ways our workforce can truly develop.
Each report of data from TECPDS, and others, provides deeper understanding of the complex early childhood workforce and individual members, but this story remains incomplete. In order to assemble a more accurate picture, we need the support of early childhood stakeholders, including city and state agencies, local workforce development boards, trainers, and administrators, to leverage TECPDS as a tool for personal career documentation and advancement as well as the state’s resource to learn about and plan for the early childhood workforce.
As the Texas Rising Star population increases across the state, we hope to continue leveraging TECPDS as a career advancement resource for individuals, but also a tool to understand the unique qualifications and needs of this dynamic workforce.
Data Limitations
Please note, many TECPDS users have multiple roles in the system, representing the broad range of experiences across the early childhood field. For example, a user may serve as a lead teacher, serve as an instructional coach, and be approved as a Registered Trainer. Some roles (e.g., school leaders) or settings (e.g., public schools) may require specific education, experience, or skills that are represented in this data.
The data is also impacted by users that are connected to the statewide Texas Rising Star program. Currently, Texas Rising Star early learning program administrators are the only users required to participate in the system. Therefore, a large portion of complete data is from this specific user pool, that may not reflect the rest of the Texas early childhood workforce.
As noted throughout the report, our data is sufficient to begin telling the story of our current early childhood workforce in Texas. Increasing TECPDS utilization, as well as additional data points about workforce members, support this common goal of learning about the workforce. More specifically, we hope to integrate new data fields that provide additional context in the future, such as age, ethnicity, wage, and workplace benefits, especially to bring insight to how the early childhood workforce reflects and influences the expanding Texas child population.
Authors
- Vibhuti Bhavsar
- April Crawford, Ph.D.
- Tracy Anne Jones, Ed.D.
- Jennifer Lindley
Acknowledgments
Thank you to the faculty and staff of the Children’s Learning Institute for their support and guidance to the 2023 State of the Texas Early Childhood Education Workforce Report.
Special thanks to the Texas Workforce Commission’s Child Care and Early Learning Division program leadership and staff for their ongoing support for TECPDS.
Suggested Citation
Children’s Learning Institute at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. (2025). Texas Early Childhood Professional Development System: State of the Texas Early Childhood Education Workforce Report 2023. Houston, TX. Retrieved from https://public.tecpds.org/about-us/state-of-the-ece-workforce-report/2023-report/.
Footnotes and References
- A small portion of (2.25%) users had more than one account in TECPDS, and CLI opted to include those users in this report since they may have career data in more than one profile/account. TECPDS is working with users to combine career data for possible duplicate accounts. Additionally, 5.98% Administrators with a Practitioner role and 0.53% Registered Trainers with Practitioner role are filtered out from Practitioner data.